>> good morning commissioners and general managers. maybe it is time for good news. my name is richard rothman. i'm a city guide at coit tower but i'm speaking for myself today. i want to thank the general manager for what is going on at coit tower. when i started this for the second time a couple years ago the art commission in rec and park weren't talking. but the general manager made staff changes, now the two -- art commission and rec and park are talking, which i think is a most important accomplishment. things are moving in the right direction at coit tower. right now they are working on doing emergency repair on the roof and in the spring. you need to start restoring the murals. apparently there won't be enough funding for all the

works to go about raising more money for that. the other thing that concerns me -- my wife and i worked on this in 1998. there was a report that the art commission commissioned. one of the recommendations is there be periodical inspections of the murals in the building. this did not happen and led to what we are going through now. this going forward -- i'm working with supervisor david chu's office that, we can find a mechanism to make sure these murals are protected. when there's damage coming that we be proactive in protecting the murals and need to think just like the museum of modern art or any museum we need to think of coit tower as a museum.

though it wasn't designed as a museum, it was supposed to be a restaurant but it is what it is. hopefully we can go forward in making sure these murals will stay protected. thank you. >> thank you. >> linda. >> first i would like to crate you. felt very honored, i would say, when i heard we were voted the best in the usa. i perform in parks all over the country, is it true. on a yalerly basis from new york to the bay down to a city called l.a. over to dallas and new orleans is it true. up to aspen and boulder too. i see many, many children

every year, you see. i always can't wait back to my home by the bay. yes, i think our parks are number one, by the way. i'm here to talk about the holidays, is it true. once again it is the time of year for the elves to arrive in union square two. i will be there, yes, sir, siree. i hope to see all of your smiling faces, you see. >> thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to make general public comment? being none, general public comment is closed. we are on item five, the consent calendar. is there anyone who would like to make public comment on the consent calendar. richard, please come forward. good morning again. i was looking over at the

betty republican radiation center. i took liberty of going out there, looking around, seeing location. i talked to a facilitator there. they seem to have a little problem with the setup, where they are going to be going into program developments from the new $40 million from the park bond of trying to be monitored location. i believe it was already approved, that they will be able to have some type of surveillance but there was an additional complication. young kids with their laptops and their ipads need to have better source of of wi-fi. if they get half dozen trying to do homework, it

overloads the umbrella. i don't know what type of costs, whether it comes from programs or development. i would expect mr. ginsburg and his staff to rectify. but the little kids, they will be doing a lot of their after-school programs and stuff. they do need some of that type of -- how should i say it. high-tech communication devices present. probably be costly. another problem is if they are ever going to deal with announcements, they will not be able to handle it too well. they only have one person and microphone is way in the front lower office. i don't know if they will get fiberoptics. i thought possibly they might use something that would be from cell phone to communication. that way be able to get on the loud speaker system. another park in looking over the betty anne long is

the structure of the place. i don't know that i got the message yet. i got to look. looks down and i thought they should have a structure and take a once look over, a crack on different floors. there were crooks on the corridor parts. office parts. they are not too bad. i think the facility was informed and fulfilled the safety requirements, thank you. >> is there any other general public comment? >> good afternoon commissioners, general manager of recreation and park department. members of the public. a little food for thought for you to chew on over

thanksgiving. and hopefully you won't choke on it. september 11th, 2011 mayor willie brown, given advance warning of the nation's worst terrorist attack since pearl harbor. if only he had have told betty anne ong not to travel on september 11th, then we wouldn't have had to have -- >> i just have to remind you, that was a tragic event. i think you just have to show a little respect for that situation here in this room. >> absolutely. >> yet it was a very tragic event, september 11th. if you were in san francisco at that time, you were getting evicted from your stable, which was being managed by recreation and parks department and the commission here. you were told that you were going to get your

facilities modernized. your stalls enlarged. that was ten years ago. you are sitting there asking me to have respect for september 11th? what if you owned a horses in san francisco september 11th, 2001. your tone would be a bit different, mr. buell. you seem to have total contempt for this city, the people that live in it. especially people that have recreational activities in it. yes, you, my friend, are the person with the character flaw. you, my friend, are the person with lack of respect. you, my friend, are the abs salute epitome of what is wrong with this country. yes, my friend, when people have served the city and county of san francisco and

their country in any capacity to get booted out at that time is unforgivable. there is nothing that you can say or do that will ever undo the gross cultural damage this recreation park department and commission achieved. absolutely unforgivable. thank you very much. >> is there anyone else who would like to make general public comment? being none, this item is closed. we are on item five, the consent calendar. is there anyone who would like to make public comment on the consent calendar? being none, this item sem closed commissioners. >> move to approve consent. >> second. >> moved and seconded. all in favor, opposed? hearing none, unanimous. item six is the san francisco zoo.

>> good morning. congratulations again on the parks. it is terrific, the park bond. thank you for all that good work. tonya peterson, director of the san francisco zoo. i will start with october. we finished with slightly over 50,400, versus 48,000. the report is overbudget by 2,400 visitors. happy to announce november attendance is commencing well, especially on veteran's day. for the month of november the zoo was overbudget by 7,000 visitors. year-to-date attendance is 335,000 visitor, versus budget of 319,000 visitors, approximately a 5% lead.

will position in case of heavy rains this winter. i have been asked at times why the zoo attracts attendance. simply put it informs us how much funds we have to spend on animal care, conservation, education, facility support as we go through the fiscal year. the same is also true for members, supporting conservation and education programs. don't forget the donors. they restrict projects to certain projects and animals. the funds from attendance and membership that supports mainly the facility, thank you. with that, speaking of attendance, i'm going to go to the slide show here. we are thankful local groups help raise the awareness of the zoo. as i speak hockey players from the san francisco bulls are actually at the

zoo this morning. they are passing out icy fish pucks to the bears and helping us kick off the winter programs. there is something appropriate about bulls visiting a zoo. part of our programming, santa's favorite have arrived. think of peppermint, bell, holly and velvet, to help teach the children about north america conservation. another thing we do is we delivered ten tons of snow for our polar bears. our polar bears are ulu and pica. i have a picture, there we go. there's pica, our 30-year-old polar bear. she was born in a zoo but ulu, who is 32, was rescued from canada. she was about to be euthenized for encroaching into the village. historically ulu has not wanted snow. she is like a new yorker

moving to florida but i hear she is enjoying the snow. so this is a fun day and weekend for the animals, so thank you all for that. speaking of holidays, we are trying something new this year. we are going to do wild lights. the zoo will be lit up. of course the lights will have animal and wild themes, open until 8:00. this is free for zoo members. i think it gives a chance for families and members to enjoy the zoo during the evening, so we look forward to that. speaking of winter, it is time for winter zoo camp. 's some of the campers. this is run for two weeks, run by joe fitting, vice president of education over 30 years. hundreds of thousands of kids come through the camp programs annually and informational fees can be found on our zoo web site. speaking of kids this year we have partnered with the

san francisco public library. they have come on the san francisco free days. this has been wildly popular. we think the public libraries on the first wednesday, free services from the library. if the kids can't come to the zoo, we go to them through the zoo mobile program we take zoos to underserving areas . this is russell crowe. can you believe we had a crow as a pet? unfortunately due to that he can no longer be released to the wild. we have been bringing russell to the kids in the class rooms and he receives rave reviews. thank you, russell. who knew. on other good news, i want to thank the staff. here is our sumatran female. she is awake while she is

probed with gels and other medical advices. in the front we are taking an ultrasound of her uterus because she's just recently been housed with our male. we are hoping to see hopefully young tigers in that uterus. but this is a great process and procedure. she is not under anesthesia. we are one of the few able to do with a tiger while she lay awake. because of those efforts the zoo has been cited in a book that's coming out on zoo animal welfare. chapter 8 is about the san francisco zoo. in particular our rescued grizzlies. this is authored by one of the world-renowned psychologists and experts. he is a consultant, psychologist and professor in residence. we are very honored we made chapter eight. with that i thank you and my zoo report.

is there any public comment on this item? >> hello again. i took a look at the zoo master plan. there seems to be a need to update the water parameter to it. the use of ground water. it is old standard. that was my only comment about what's going on at the zoo. to upgrade the zoo master plan, the water issue. thank you. >> richard rothman. >> commissioners and general manager, while we were successful in restoring our coit tower, we have another building, the mother's building at the zoo. i don't know if the commissioners are aware but the official title

systematical the dalia memorial building. i think it is in honor of the former commissioner this building needs to be restored. i did research. there was an effort in '88 and '89 to restore the building. the art commission is responsible for the murals or art work in the building and reck and park owns the building, i guess it is managed by the zoo. this is another building that has multiple jurisdictions. i would hope that we could rehabilitate the building. the first two things that need to be done in my opinion while this building is a national landmark it is not a city landmark. i have talked to the landmark's board. they started a fire and

would like to request the zoo committee or this commission to send alert to the planning department to urge this a city landmark . this would give it additional protection that any changes would have to go before the city -- the landmarks commission. although this commission did approve it being a national landmark i believe in 1979. the other thing i think needs to be done is like when the staff or arts commission is do a joint study to see what work needs to be done to rehabilitate the building. not only the physical building but the art. this was successful that we did. the commission did with arg of coit tower. i think we should use the

same model at the dalia flyshacker memorial building. since the next item is the rehabilitation of the children's playground, if my memory served me right, these buildings are right next to each other so i hope the staff will take action on this important building, thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to make public comment on this item? being none, public comment is closed. this was discussion only, commissioners, we are on item 7. san francisco zoo, eleanor friend playground. >> good morning

commissioners, karen money brodac from parks planning capital project. i'm excited and will hand this over to joe, the vice president of education at the zoo. i wanted to briefly introduce the item. again, this is discussion and possible action to approve the zoo's conceptual plan for the renovation to the playground at the zoo and expenditure of up to 2.3 million. including 138,000 from recreation and parks department. two, to adopt finding under the california environmental quality act and adopt mitigation, monitoring and reporting program. that 138,000 was already previously approved. just reaffirming the expenditure of that. this is existing playground in poor shape. doesn't meet certain

current safety code. included in your commission report under attachments three and four, we worked closely with the planning department to identify and describe all the appropriate seek what language that is needed the to move forward. it was included and covered under the environmental impact report. we have included that information in your packets. so staff recommendation is to approve. i will now turn it over to joe fitting, thank you. >> good morning commissioners and general managers. it is pleasure to be here. i'm delighted to continue the conversation about amazing parks and how we can engage our families in unique ways. it is my personal wish to leave no child inside. i think we have an amazing

project that will help advance that mission. i'm joe fitting, vp of conservation and education. i started my career at the zoo in 1980. >> powerpoint. there you sgo. >> 1980 as an education specialist, now i'm the vp of conservation and education. the mission of the san francisco zoo, one is to connect our families and children, most importantly, to nature and, of course, animals. i just want to point out the friends family in 1980 thought that was so important they helped transform a tired old playground in 1980s. they will help us today with this new project. the structures are typical

from the 80s. very standard. go ahead. they were replacing old metal and cement structures. that was the design standards for the 80s also, somewhat metal and woods were brought in. but very kind of stark in nature. this last image is disturbing. this is not enough for our children. they deserve more. the next slide you will see is going to show you the images of what is possible. the design is play based experiences that led to inspiration, exploration and education. it allows children and parents of all abilities to enjoy the many activities, forms and colors, connected them to nature and our

animals. for our youngest, learning about the water's edges to places imagined. our polar zones. to an irresistible. this is an irresistible event and exploration of all ages, this design of the banyan tree. let me read you a final quote that emphasizes while this will be amazing for our children. all studies show children develop an appreciation and connection for and with animals if they can learn about them on their own terms and in manners appropriate to their age and psychological and physiological development. this new playground allows us to do this. by doing, begin the long-term process of creating life-long advocates in young people

for nature and animal. please help us make it so. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> that concludes the presentation on this item. thank you. >> is there any public comment on this item? being none, public comment is closed, commissioners. commissioner lowe. >> i would like to make certain finding in connection with this project and would like to make the motion but defer to colleagues if they have questions regarding this matter. >> commissioner bonia. >> yes. >> i was looking through my packet and trying to see if

i could find information. a little more information on the materials that will be used to construct all of these different venues. also wanted to know more about the shelf life of these structures and how they will be maintained. if new materials are going to be used, if there will be new plans. if you will have a maintenance -- special maintenance plan for these materials. because i have never seen such extravagance of playground structures. they looked special so

wanted to get more information. >> thank you, commissioner. tim vu, commissioner of philanthropy at the zoo. a design and build firm has been commissioned so they see the process through from conception to construction. they have been careful looking at materials now. they are creating the structures off-site so they can modularly put in the playground. steel infrastructures with a variety of composite materials that will be around them that have been tested for understanding, the toe pog fi of the zoo, the salt weather, corrosion issues. they have looked at all of these issues. they also looked at the maintenance issues, so we are looking at even the ground levels around them. asphalt, concrete, what will last over time, what is easier to maintain, what prevents things from cracking. that's been taken into consideration. and also particularly there's a tactile element in all the structures so that disabled children when they plan them will be able

to feel the structures and have a tactile sense of what they are doing, as well as people visually needing to look at that. that has been looked at carefully. mayor's office and disability has gone through this. approved it as well. >> what will be the shelf life of the structures. >> we look at -- >> considering the ones previously designed. were 1980. we are just now replacing them. i must say i have been to the zoo many times. i have always wondered now what kind of playground is this. who really plays in it. i have seen kids play there. but it doesn't seem to have

the excitement for kids that i would think would normally be the case. >> thank you, commissioner. it is very much so that this will have a much more exciting sense. we have asked scientific arts to tell us the shelf life of these. they do not have a sense of an ending. the materials are meant to extend as long as we can maintain and support them. there is not a specific closing or end date for that. so really be up to us to maintain them as they are. but they are designed to endure the weather and elements. little kids jumping up and down for as long as they will be there. >> they are safe for children. >> absolutely. >> absolutely safe for children. >> we have had everything vetted by the mayor's office as well for all the issues. >> good. >> thank you. >> seeing no other comments, commissioner lowe. >> yes, i would like to make the following finding